Part of the free market system is that companies fail. New companies
come along and replace them. No particular company is indispensable.
Companies change management from time to time. It is not infrequent
for them to change their character totally. And they often become
less creative as they grow. The creative company of yesterday is
often tomorrow's dinosaur.
For those two reasons, we should not exaggerate the importance of the
survival of any particular company.
Those reasons are based on mainstream values. They are valid even for
people who think that what Apple did in the early 80s was an shining
example of virtue.
For those of us who believe software should be free, the fact that
Apple, Microsoft and most software companies make mainly proprietary
software is another reason not to mourne them if they disappear.
Because even in the early 80s, what Apple was doing was wrong.
Not egregious, not something to be singled out, but still wrong.
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